Oh oh, we're in trouble

It's great to see how much has grown in the garden these past three weeks, the shrubs at the front of the house are reaching the windows, the rose bush has started blooming again and the bulbs I've planted are coming along just fine.

I had lily bulbs left over from last year which spontaneously started to grow in the corner where I had dumped the contents of their pot. They look very fresh and ready to bloom within a couple of weeks. But then I noticed a splash of red (and several holes in the leaves)!

These pests are the so called scarlet or red lily beetle, and they can be really destructive and destroy healthy plants within days. Apparently the way to get rid of them is to hand pluck them off the leaves early in the morning before 7:30 am when they're still sluggish :-(

They certainly weren't sluggish this warm afternoon, Belgium's first official summer day, with temperatures of 26 C/ 70 F. It was very hard capturing one and the photo is really not good at all, but will have to do for today. Hope I'll be able to catch them and their offspring in time !

Thanks very much for your comments and stars for yesterday's sunrise at sea :-)